The Right Offs

“Is there a doctor in the house?” Max Loignon shouts in the opening line of the song “Fire in a Theatre,” off the EP of the same name, but he sounds more revved up than in need of resuscitation on the latest release from local rock revelers The Right Offs. The EP includes three songs from three musicians — Loignon on vocals and guitar, Than Rolnick on bass and vocals, and Bob Breychak on drums — who know how to pack maximum impact into a minimal amount of time, and how to make the introspective sound expansive.

“A lot of these songs, the seeds of them, came while we were looking for Bob” in January 2017, said Loignon, “and when we first got him and that transition. That’s when I started getting motivated.”

“It’s my first recording with them,” added Breychak. “They haven’t released any new material in two years. We’re kind of refreshing everyone’s minds. We’re not just a live band. We actually have songs that are recorded and have that available.”

“And these are slightly different kinds of songs,” Loignon said.

“Definitely,” said Breychak.

“It’s been a lot of work and a lot of fun,” added Rolnick.

Loignon and Rolnick added Breychak to the group in 2017 and played throughout New Haven regularly that year, continuing to play selections from their first album but also adding in new songs here and there. Recording began on the very last day of 2017 with the band then slowing down its live show schedule to focus on it.

“We did have a good little stretch in New Haven a while back, but we were only playing the old album, playing the same ten songs, and I was like, ‘guys, people are going to start getting a little bored of this,’” said Loignon. “Then we started looking elsewhere, other places in CT, and then recording really hit high gears.”

Recording began on the day of New Year’s Eve last year, according to Breychak. “That was the first day of drum tracking. We didn’t do it every day. Sometimes it was once a week, sometimes even less than that. We broke it up quite a bit. Plus there was just a lot of material at once, 18 songs total. There was actually more than that, but we whittled it down to 18.”

The band ended up at Birdseye Studios in West Haven with Jon Conine engineering, recording and mixing all of them. They chose three for an EP that were then mastered at Sans Serif Recording by Sam Carlson.

“We had a good chunk of time to write songs,” said Loignon when asked about the large number of songs Breychak had mentioned. “I just gave them everything and said ‘here you go guys!’ and they went with it.”

Loignon also talked more about his own writing process and how the band interacts with that and each other when bringing their songs to completion.

“It basically started with Max giving us demos,” said Breychak.

“Skeletons, as I call them,” said Loignon.

“And then we figure out how to play them as a band together,” said Breychak.

“Generally 95 percent of them are me and guitar. I think there were two that I got a little crappy drum loop into,” Loignon said with a laugh.

“Which was very helpful, by the way,” added Breychak with a smile.

“It helped me a lot, kept me in time, but yeah 95 percent is guitar and voice and sometimes full stretches of lyrics. Sometimes it’s just sort of mumbling rhythmic or melodic mumbling. It’s like half and half, words and that. I write all the lyrics. In the skeletons I’ll just come up with the framework of it, then once we figure it all out as a band and when we say, ‘ok we like the framework,’ then I’ll go back and add to it.”

Was there a theme to Loignon’s songs this time around?

“I find that I just sort of let stuff tumble out of me, and then I sort of make sense of it later on. So I’m doing my mumbles and my little spots of words on the spot,” he said. “Sometimes spontaneously I’ll sort of make sense of it, then leave it alone for a while, and then just sort of chew on it. When it’s time to properly come back to it then I’ll have a framework of this song. Does it feel like this mood? Should this be in it? Is it clear enough?”

“We’ve got a couple of different styles of songs in this big batch so there wasn’t one specific way,” Loignon continued. “Maybe with these three songs there’s a little bit more of a theme. I’m thinking more of the whole of the songs, what it would feel like to listen to all of them, so to me it’s more of a big picture. What do the 18 songs mean to me as opposed to the individual songs…. If I’m a listener, if I’m listening from start to finish, what does it feel like finished?”


This listener felt something refreshing yet powerful when listening to the three songs, with “Fire in a Theatre” igniting all the air in the room right out of the box — a perfect example of how the band grabs your attention immediately and doesn’t let up even when it quiets down a bit. Which it does with the second song, “Don’t Want That Around You,” a more traditional rock ‘n’ roll get-on-the-dance-floor-with-someone-you-love tune that would be anyone’s first choice to spend her quarter on in an old-fashioned jukebox, if there were any of those left around. The final of the three, “Spread the Money,” is as melodic and jangly as a pocketful of change, but then gets downright gritty as Loignon pleads and persists with lyrics like “I don’t wanna be forgiven / I don’t wanna be forgot / Nail it to the blackboard / nail it to the spot.” By the time it’s over you have had a satisfying bite of what the band has brought to the table while being left with anticipation for the year — and 15 other songs — ahead.

“I think we do want to do a full-length after this EP,” said Loignon. “We probably will throw out a couple of singles too.”

And then there are those live shows — three of which are scheduled before the end of 2018, including Dec. 15 at Three Sheets and Dec. 28 at Cafe Nine.

“I think we’ve gotten some great responses playing live and to me I enjoy playing live as much as possible,” said Breychak. “This December we’ve got a couple in New Haven but are trying to spread it around, maybe even revisit the same city in a couple of months and even get on the road and outside of CT in 2019.”

Loignon expressed an eagerness to get on stage right now.

“After a little while, yeah, I get antsy, I go through either wanting to be in my room writing stuff or on stage, and currently I want to be on stage and I’m gonna be feeling like that for a while. I mean, I had plenty of time to be holed away and just sort of writing stuff, so now it’s time to be out.”

Rolnick agreed. “I think people are going to like the stuff, I like it. The songs are going to be a lot of fun to play. It was never really like that before I was in this band. I always liked playing live, but I never really was anxious to do it until I was in this band.”

Breychak agreed as well, adding his gratitude to be part of the Right Offs and the local scene.

“There are a lot of great bands in New Haven,” he said. “There have always been a lot of great bands in New Haven. There has never been a shortage of talent around here. I think sometimes it ebbs and flows with venues and people going to shows, but there always been a lot of great bands in this city.”

He also expressed his pride about the new music.“This EP is representative of some of the sounds that are going to be on the album too, I think. There’s going to be a more rock sound and more subdued stuff. I felt like, as being the last person to join this band, it seemed like there was a lot more variation going on overall.”

Loignon agreed. “We’re not punk. We’re not folky. We just kinda rock ‘n’ roll, but we throw some weird sort of stuff in there from several different kinds of worlds.”

“Especially with the newer stuff,” added Breychak.

“I guess I’m speaking to you about an album you haven’t heard,” said Loignon with a smile. “I’ve been thinking about these songs for a year.”

That doesn’t mean the Right Offs aren’t looking ahead to 2019 including more live shows and touring, that album they mentioned, and possibly a video or two. Loignon also has a goal of his own.

“I hope that by the end of the year we can play a show, and the crowd knows the words to one of our songs,” he said.

“That’s pretty ambitious,” Breychak responded.

“That’s why it’s a goal,” Loignon said.

“Our goals are not that exotic,” Rolnick said. “We just want to play and get as many people to hear it as possible because we like it and were proud of it.”

“We’ve all had our own personal things going on, and I think it’s reflective in the production and I think it’s something that’s been really meaningful to me,” Breychak said. “I’m so grateful to finally be able to release some of the material and have it come out and there’s a lot of meaning there for me, and I think for all of us collectively. There are a lot of people who have been supportive of us throughout the whole process that we really should thank a lot. We couldn’t have done it without them, and we could not have done it without each other. This comes from my heart. I’m really thankful to be a part of this band and a part of this. I kind of came into it randomly, and I’m really thankful that I did. I can’t wait for everybody to hear it. We just want to keep playing music, sharing it with people, play new places, and whatever response we get, I think we’re going to just keep on playing.”

Loignon made it unanimous. “Keep on keeping on,” he said.

Fire in a Theater is available on Bandcamp. The band plays Three Sheets on Dec. 15 and Cafe Nine on Dec. 28. - New Haven Independent, 13 December 2018

4.0 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

Max Loignon (guitar/vocals), Than Rolnick (bass) and Bob Breychak (drums) are The Right Offs. On their album Quiet Down (which former drummer Erik Vumback played on) the band has a visceral, raw energy to their music that doesn't sound the least bit contemporary. I would compare their energy and vibe to bands like The Clash and The Who. It’s hard to quantify but that's some of the beauty of live music that still is vacant within electronic music.
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That's the thing about their music. It’s hard for me to explain on paper the contingencies that make it work so well because the music is fairly simple from a technical standpoint. For starters Loignon has a voice that feels tailor made for this music. It crackles with energy and his delivery is covered with aesthetics of ’70s English punk bands.

The other aspect to note is the production and recording quality. I have to mention something I found humorous about the album process. The band recorded the album in Manchester, CT and then had it mixed in Manchester, England. I have no idea of their thought process but I’m guessing it had nothing to do with the fact that both cities were called Manchester but they were studios that they wanted to utilize. It fits the music so well. The band's energy matches with the aesthetic from ’70s punk is the full package.

​Quiet Down is thirty-nine minutes and there isn’t an ounce of fat. The songs are catchy and to the point. I can’t say there were any songs that felt like duds or brought down the energy of the album. The band starts with “Ways of the Western World” which is indicative of the feel of the rest of the album. “Every Punk Has a Soul” is a refreshing song that brings a similar revolutionary type vibe of The Who while “Just Above Below” contains an exceptional, dynamic vocal performance.

This is a great album from beginning to end. I can’t say the band is pushing boundaries at all or introducing aspects I haven't heard before. That being said these are original compositions that are very well written and executed. Overall, this gets two big thumbs up. - Divide and Conquer, 27 June 2017

by Brian Slattery

Wednesday night marked a commemoration at Cafe Nine of the anniversary of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s suicide on April 5, 1994. The Tet Offensive, New Haven’s rock ‘n’ roll string quartet, marked the occasion by performing Nirvana’s landmark 1991 album Nevermind almost in its entirety (only the hidden track was missing).

But the openers to the show, the Right-Offs, served up just as fitting a tribute by reminding the crowd of the power a rock trio — just a guitar, bass, and drums — could have when it got down to the business of making noise.

The band introduced itself with two stabs of opening chords. Heads in the audience snapped to attention as the trio — Max Loignon on vocals and guitar, Than Rolnick on bass, and Robert Breychak on drums — ripped into their first song. The Right-Offs sounded tight, even tighter than the band is on its last release, 2016’s Quiet Down, and more ferocious, raging around the twists and turns in the band’s clever, tightly wound material. The energy the trio poured into the opener to that album, “Ways of the Western World,” brought out the intelligence in the songwriting (“History is a well-coiffed murderer,” the opening line goes) and made the song feel as urgent as ever.

Loignon called Breychak “the real hero … we got a bad mother on the drums tonight,” and Breychak and Rolnick made for a formidable rhythm section. But Loignon, dressed in a collared shirt and tie, black jeans, and sneakers, filled the big shoes of frontman easily. His voice had a natural croon to it that he could push into a raspy scream when needed. Likewise, he could coil his guitar playing into a tight, percussive chop, or let it loose into a wall of noise. At one point, he let his guitar go all the way, first strumming it into a frenzy and then holding his hands up in surrender as the guitar itself kept resonating, higher tones of feedback soaring over a rush of static, as the rhythm section drove the song forward.

He also proved to be a showman to the end, closing the set with the Elvis Costello-like “Night Is A Shadow” first by strumming the guitar into a squall, then windmilling like Pete Townsend used to. He dropped to his knees, then to his back, rolling on the floor, all while keeping time. Somewhere in there he lost his guitar pick. It didn’t matter. He had people in the crowd screaming anyway. (The Right-Offs play New Haven again May 6 at Cafe Nine and June 23 at Three Sheets.)

“Who here loves Nirvana?” Rolnick said. “Admit it.”

He was kidding — no one needed to admit that they were there to celebrate the band’s lasting influence as the Tet Offensive, fronted by composer and singer Brian Robinson, took the stage. With Breychak on drums, Alexis Thorne and (in full disclosure) this reporter on violins, Anjanine Bonet on viola, and Laura Klein (of Western Estates) on cello, playing arrangements written by Robinson, the six-piece led the house through a near-singalong of Nevermind, from the iconic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to “On A Plain.” The audience seemed to get rowdier with each song, until the elegiac closer “Something in the Way,” which Robinson mixed in the score with elements from Frederic Chopin’s famous funeral march. Except for an errant voice or two, no one said a word. Until the end, when everyone cheered. - The New Haven Independent, 7 April 2017

Dear Deli Readers,
We have finally reached the end of the road for The Deli’s Best Emerging New England Artists Poll. As usual, it’s been a lengthy, exhausting, painstaking journey through an abundance of numbers, band names, and some seriously rad tunes. Now, before we get to our list of this year’s Top Performers, we would like to thank our wonderful, knowledgeable jury of local music experts/enthusiasts (which you can view below), dedicated Deli writers and all those who took the time to check out our nominees and cast their votes. You’re the best, and we wouldn’t be able to do this without you!

#12 - The Right Offs - The Deli Magazine, 22 March 2017

by Chip McCabe

If truly pressed I may confess that my favorite record out my home state in 2016 came from punk rock outfit, The Right-Offs. Hearkening back to when punk was still an infant suckling at rock n’ roll’s teat, The Right-Offs play it loud and aggressive without scaring off the kids. Equal parts catchy and bombastic, Quiet Down could and should find a home on the shelves of anyone who likes their music with guts and grit. “Every punk has a soul,” so say The Right-Offs, and these three punks certainly do. - The Metal Dad, 16 December 2016

One of the most high energy performances at Cafe Nine in recent memory, the Right-Offs played a few tunes for the good people of New Haven. Fronted by visionary leader Max Loignon, the group brings something you don't always hear on the radio: actually good music.

If you're looking for something new to listen to, really look no further because hey we got their album embedded right below. Enjoy, kids. And stay tuned for more from your Local Scene. - New Haven Music Scene, November 2016

by Jonathan DeWoskin

Greetings and welcome to Twangri-La. My name is Jonathan and I’ll be your guide on your adventure into new music. Here you’ll read about bands you’ve never heard of, but ought to know about. This is your opportunity to add new music to your library. Pick a few tracks, make a playlist, put it on at your next party and I promise your friends will point to your speakers and ask, “Who is this?” Out of curiosity, of course; never derision.

The Right-Offs hail from Connecticut and claim they’re unafraid to play the sounds that need to be played. What I can tell you is they’re loud, staccato and I can only imagine their stage presence. The songs on Quiet Down vary with the range of punk genre. You will not hear several versions of the same three chords.

So what do you hear when you play them? Oddly enough, the band they resemble closest to my mind is the long defunct British punk band Vatican DC. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. The Right-Offs are joining my regular rotation at the gym. Tracks like Red, Green and Blue are great for a sprint at the gym or a spirited back road drive. It’s the fastest and hardest on the album and really gets your blood moving. Funny though, once I hear the opening riff I start mouthing the lyrics to Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode. This is not a bad thing.

“Break it up” and “Night is a Shadow” also get your attention. They’re a little slower, but as I listened, I found myself captivated either by the rhythm or the clever rhymes. If you like Jet or Green Day, this album is definitely in your comfort zone and a nice change of pace from the mainstream. Some of their songs stretch the genre a little bit. You’ll hear hints of The White Stripes and, if you can imagine, the Caesars or Teddybears without synthesizers. - Twangri-La, 12 November 2016

by Brian Slattery

Indie rock. Kraut rock. Math rock. Post-rock.

It’s all good. But are there any bands around New Haven that just play straight-up rock ‘n’ roll anymore?

Yes. And one of those bands is the Right-Offs.

The trio — Man Loignon on vocals and guitar, Than Rolnick on bass, and Erik Vumback on drums — hase been making the rounds of New Haven’s club scene for at least a year; the next show is this coming Monday night at Cafe Nine.

And this week the band roars out of the gate with their first full-length release, Quiet Down, an aggressive, snarling, intelligent, and witty record that takes up the flag of good old rock ‘n’ roll, hoists it high, and waves it hard.

As the cheeky title suggests, Quiet Down is anything but. Its first track, “Ways of the Western World,” gives you a half-second to take a breath along with Loignon before all three band members hit the song’s first beat and race off with it in a tight, driving groove. But the band’s agile smarts come out quick, too: “History is a well-coiffed murderer,” Loignon croons. “Coming for me quick, coming for me quick, gonna cut me down.” The song builds to its promised release in the chorus, where Loignon lets his guitar off the leash. “I’m still trying to fight ‘em from the inside out,” he barks. “I’m still trying not to let the air breathe me. / I’m still trying to learn the ways of the Western world.”

I might be pretty messed up, but I know the world is, too. It’s a message that punks have been delivering with wild success for decades. The Right-Offs prove they can do it, too, and kick up the musical rage to make it stick. “Western World” sets the stage for even harder rockers later in the album, from the second number, “Hard Work,” to the album’s closer, the swinging “Break It Up,” to the blister-raising “Red, Green, and Blue.”

But Quiet Down makes room for some humor, too, as in “Night Is A Shadow,” about a night out that goes south. “There’s a hot fire / waiting for those / very rich boys / in poor man’s clothes,” Loignon sings, with rising (and hilarious) desperation. “Place got filled up / with Travis Bickles / Please don’t touch me / Hey, that tickles / I think I’ll go now / This party’s lame / I’ve been puked on / You forgot my name.” Meanwhile, an acoustic guitar lends additional strut to “Ginger Gin,” about a relationship that may be on its way out, even in the time it takes to play the song.

Most of all, though, in pledging allegiance to rock ‘n’ roll, Quiet Down shows that the genre, much-maligned these days, still has plenty of life in it. The Right-Offs know their history, musical and otherwise. But the band also knows when to leave it behind by turning up those amps loud, hitting the drums hard, and stepping up to the microphone to shout until the world listens. - New Haven Independent, 15 September 2016

by Michael Hamad

God ropes off a special green room in heaven for musicians who play to less than enthusiastic crowds, who leave a pint of blood onstage and walk off amid demands for an encore.

On a dreary Saturday, facing a sparse audience at this year's Meriden Daffodil Festival, the Right-Offs — singer and guitarist Max Loignon, drummer Erik Vumback and bassist Than Rolnick — ripped through an album's worth of songs.

When it ended, they got called back, returning with a thrown-together romp through Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll." It was a rock-history moment, in microcosm.

"There might be five people, but we're going to play like there's hundreds of people around," Vumback says. "We just don't care. That's the whole point of playing in a band: Don't care. Do what you want."

"It's fun when there's a small crowd or a weird crowd of elderly people or small children," Loignon adds. "I think we have fun being a little extra weird and rocking a little bit harder, intentionally, just to make people feel a little strange."

The Right-Offs repeat that feat regularly, in small-ish clubs around the state. Bands on bills with them become immediate fans.

"The Right-Offs seared our brains," Bethel's Quiet Giant recently posted to Facebook, "in the best way possible."

"Connecticut has a pretty structured scene, and we're doing our own thing," Vumback says. "We're playing rock and roll. It sounds pretentious, but we're trying not to label it. We just say, 'We play rock.' That's about it."

Loignon, 28, and Vumback, 25, both grew up in Cheshire. Loignon was in a short-lived band called Speakeasy with drummer and fellow ECSU Theatre Department student Alex Smith.

Vumback played in a pop-punk band for five years, and then quit music entirely. "I kind of got weaseled out and stopped playing for a good four years," he says.

Vumback's mother styles Loignon's mother's hair. One day, about two years ago, the two women discussed their sons' musical talents, which led to a meeting.

"It's kind of silly, but it worked out pretty well," Loignon says.

Calling themselves The Same, Loignon and Vumback recorded a demo in 2014 with two other musicians — guitarist Adam Russo and Steven Vumback, Erik's brother, on bass — who soon quit.

"Erik and I wanted to keep playing music together," Loignon says. "At that point, it was just the two of us. We said, 'Let's get something recorded that we can use to book ourselves some gigs and hopefully help us find a bass player.' Something to show someone what we're doing."

"The Right-Offs," a four-song EP recorded in two days with just guitars, drums and vocals (no bass), came out in 2015. Robbie DeRosa, longtime organizer for the Daffodil Festival and host of WESU's Homegrown radio show, became a fan.

"I received the EP before I saw their gig list and was grabbed by the urgency and attitude in the vocals," DeRosa says. "The strong drumming and slashing guitar jumped out because most of the young bands these days are growing beards and playing mandolin, and I play plenty of those talented acts. This is a straight-out rock band that pulls few punches."

Loignon writes the lyrics. He and Vumback came up with riffs and grooves together. "Truthfully, for those four songs, I don't remember how they came together," Loignon says.

Soon after the EP release, Loignon met Rolnick.

"A friend of mine was going to a party at his place," Rolnick says. "It turned out it was in my apartment building. We're actually neighbors." Loignon said the band was looking for a bassist, and Rolnick volunteered.

The Right-Offs recorded a full-length album called "Quiet Down" at Silk City Music Factory in Manchester. They're waiting for it to be mastered. It will arrive later this summer.

Two songs from the EP, "Ways of the Western World" and "Break It Up," were re-recorded for "Quiet Down"; "Yeah Honest" — my current favorite, a full-out, relentless, expertly crafted rock song, splitting the differences between Thin Lizzy, Jack White and Elvis Costello — was not.

DeRosa, Vumback says, "reached out to me, asking for one of our CDs. It just kind of blossomed from there. He just wanted to book us after that. He's been playing us on Homegrown for almost an entire year after we came up with that EP. That's why we needed to make some new music. We can't keep riding this EP for so long."

After the release of "Quiet Down," the Right-Offs plan to tour. They need a van. "The real question is whether we want to go north or south," Loignon says. His skeletal five-year plan is "just to reach people. To reach as many people as we can."

Will touring interfere with their day-to-day lives?

"That's why you save up vacation time," Vumback says. "It's going to be a risk. We're all pretty young, so why not take a risk?" - Hartford Courant, 23 June 2016

The Right Offs are a New Haven, CT, USA based rock n' roll trio who channel every ounce of joy, grit, and energy they can muster into their music. The band features the soulful and instantly

memorable vocals of singer/songwriter/guitarist Max Loignon, backed by the dynamic rhythm section of Than Rolnick on bass/backing vocals and drummer Bob Rock. Their local performances are legendary. In 2016 The Right Offs self-released their debut album to rave reviews in local press. The Right Offs quickly became a force to be reckoned with. With the release of their new three song EP "Fire In a Theatre", The Right Offs are ready to begin their next chapter. As the first fruit of a nearly year-long recording process, "Fire In a Theatre" is a resounding reaffirmation of the band's core strengths as an explosive live band and accomplished songwriting team. With several new releases planned for 2019, "Fire In a Theatre" provides an enticing and worthy taste of what is yet to come. True to their name, The Right Offs are poised and energized for what's next, and as a result, right where they belong.

What’s up CONNECTICUT! I am still rocking out to this track. I mean where do I start! That intro with the classic drum stick countdown is one of my favorite things about rock and roll. The vocals are one you will never forget. There is so much strength in this bands sound. I love the chorus. How his voice changes during “Fire in a Theatre” and at the end of theatre there is a slight vocal run and I am here for it! There really isn’t anything to not love about this track. Amazing guitar strings and dope drumming makes this one for the book!

Be sure to give a listen to "Fire In a Theatre" and scroll down to check out the group's exclusive interview!

(Interview)
Hey guys! Would you mind introducing yourselves to our readers?
Sure thing. We’re a three-piece rock ’n roll outfit from New Haven, CT. Our current lineup has been around for almost two years, Max Omer on vocals and guitar, Than Rolnick on bass and backup vocals, and Bob Rock holds down the beat and makes us look good. We’re all about writing great songs and going for the gusto on stage every single time.

What is the music scene like in Connecticut?
We’d call it vibrant and robust. It’s a small state but the quality more than makes up for any lack of quantity. There are some amazingly talented, genuine, generous, hard-working people here making all kinds of music, and the cozy size of things makes for a great community vibe. There are also some fantastic venues that get a lot of great touring acts.

Why did you guys choose rock and roll as your genre of music?
We’ve all loved rock music since we were tykes. It’s such a wide-open genre, there’s always another artist to learn about past and present. It’s within reach of simpletons like us, but it can be as complicated and creative as you could want.

What is the story behind the track “Fire In The Theatre”?
Fire in a Theatre is about words and speech with respect to location, time and space. To say the name "Macbeth" in a theatre is bad luck for actors... but not if that's the play you're putting on. It’s also a ridiculously fun song to play.

What can we hope to see from you in the future?
Bigger, better, more. This is a very exciting time for us! We have a full-length album planned, videos, touring. The Right Offs are expanding our scope in every way possible.

Stay connected with The Right Offs through their website and social media... - BuzzMusic, 3 March 2019

Maxwell Omer is contemplative, calm, still, but not at rest. While many musicians are waiting for venues to open and trying to find a way to create through a pandemic-induced lack of gigs, the New Haven-based lead singer and guitarist for The Right Offs has chosen to remain present and put the work in where he can: with his songwriting.

“I have a weird relationship with it,” Omer — a.k.a. Max Loignon — said about the conditions of the pandemic. “I can’t totally hate that I have time to write without thinking about anything else.”

The Right Offs had come into 2020 fresh off of a series of shows celebrating the release of the band’s latest EP, Fake Adjustments, and the crew was ready to settle into a spring that would focus on preparing for the next release, a full-length album titled Bardo, which Omer said he and the other band members — Than Rolnick on bass and vocals and Bob Breychak, a.k.a. Bob Rock, on drums — have been working on for the last two years and are currently shopping around to labels.

“This didn’t come at a terrible time for us,” said Omer. “We were planning on being a little bit quiet anyway, getting housekeeping stuff done — social media, press kit, bios — things we had been putting off. We planned on being out of state over the summer — New Jersey, New York, Philly — that was going to be our big push. That’s on hold now.”

Omer talked about the growing concerns over the “the musical landscape” post-pandemic. “Will there be a traffic jam once it opens up?” he asked. “Who will play?... We will try to be as smart as we can and a bit clever if we have to, but it’s a lot of wait and see.”

When it comes to writing, however, there is no wait and see time for Omer. “Once we got all the tracks done for Bardo last spring, I started writing songs,” he said. “I kept working on them, but then they got pushed to the back burner with shows in the fall and winter. Those songs were in a good place, not done, but they had their foundations. I knew if I wanted to pick it up it wouldn’t be hard to do.”

For the past two months that is exactly what Omer has done. With East Rock Coffee, where he works, closed for a period of time along with venues closed and gigs cancelled, Omer was left with “nothing to do.”

“I can’t have nothing to do, so I regimented my writing” he said. “I got up early and told myself ‘I’m gonna finish this song today, if it takes two hours or the whole day.’ I held myself to having to go to work. It helped me stay focused.”

Did the current state of the world have any effect on his lyrics? “I don’t want this to touch on my art, but I will say I have found some songs that might be a bit relevant,” said Omer. “They feel a bit appropriate for these times and coming back. I tailored some of the lyrics to what it will feel like when the world comes back to normal.”

Omer has a gift for poetics in his songwriting and does not necessarily stick to one topic or narrative for his projects. “I don’t think Bardo had a big story in my head. There was a theme I stuck to only moderately. It’s still a bit there. Once it was done and I started the next round of writing, I just wanted to write good songs.” When Omer writes, he said, “I’m not worried about a collective album. I do a better job if it’s more varied. The songs have a quality of ‘devil may care, you’re on your own buddy’ … I’ll leave it for the listeners to decide.”


The Right Offs.

As far as his most recent writings, he noted that two-thirds of the songs have already been shared with bandmates Rolnick and Breychak. “Rudimentary editing software” enabled Omer to give them “a pretty good batch of demos. It lets us play with things and speed up the process.”

“With Bardo the demos I gave them were the full 20-something songs. We went nuts and recorded them all, but then put out an EP (Fire In a Theater) then another EP (Fake Adjustments) and now an album. This time we will give 15 or 16 songs, pair down to a dozen and record a number from there. I’d rather have a 9 or 10 song album. It’s time for us to do that sort of thing.”

Another venture The Right Offs got involved in last year was the State House Cabaret. The full band played for one show in the spring and Omer played solo for a holiday show, even performing a new song he penned specifically for the show called “Everybody’s Getting a Candle This Year.” With this year’s live shows on hold for the time being, the Cabaret has decided to put on a pre-taped show online; that will be held on Saturday, June 6. Viewers can either purchase a ticket allowing them to view the show for 24 hours or can purchase the show to keep. The Right Offs will be recording their piece soon, but you will have to view it to see what they will be performing.

Neither the band nor Omer have any livestreamed shows currently booked. “The ones I’ve seen, the music is always great, but it’s that dead air between songs. It kills me. Maybe I’m being weird,” he added with a laugh. Omer is not against doing one. For him, it is more about how he can do it in a way that satisfies him.

“I have to come up with something. I have to figure out how to do it,” he said, his concerns mostly being with the absence of audience interaction and response, which he notes is a big part of how the band prepares for and conducts a live show.

“That’s how we organize a set list. That can change depending on how people respond — that cyclical feedback, the response back and forth.” He is unsure if he can reproduce that “by myself … me in my bedroom,” he said. “That’s my laboratory. I don’t know if I want people in my laboratory,” he added with a laugh.

He is definitely not opposed to trying once he is inspired. “I need one little kernel of an idea,” he said. “I want to do something that is effective of that fact, that context. I need to be able to sink my teeth into something.”

Check out The Right Offs Facebook page for updates about their forthcoming album. Check out The State House Cabaret Facebook page for information about their upcoming show on June 6. - New Haven Independent, 20 May 2020